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About Syracuse, New York

Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and is the fifth most populous city in the state of New York. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170 (making it the 167th largest city in the country), and its metropolitan area had a population of 662,577. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over a million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex and, directly west of the city, the Empire Expo Center, which hosts the annual Great New York State Fair. The city derives its name from Siracusa, a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

The city has functioned as a major crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is located at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90, and its airport is the largest in the region. Syracuse is a home to Syracuse University, a major research university; the Upstate Medical University and Hospital, the city's largest employer; SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry and other colleges and professional schools. In 2010 Forbes rated Syracuse 4th in the top 10 places to raise a family.

Syracuse Economy & Neighborhoods

Syracuse's economy has faced challenges over the past decades as industrial jobs have left the area. The number of local and state government jobs also has been declining for several years. Syracuse's top employers are now primarily in education and the service industry. University Hill is Syracuse's fastest growing neighborhood, fuelled by expansions by Syracuse University and Upstate Medical University (a division of the State University of New York), as well as dozens of small medical office complexes.

Top employers - The top ten employers in the Syracuse region and the size of their workforce according to SyracuseCentral.com:

Upstate University Health System: 9,460

Syracuse University: 6,507

Oneida Indian Nation: 4,500

Wegmans Food Markets: 4,100

St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center: 3,142

Crouse Hospital: 2,700

Loretto (Senior Living): 2,427

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors Division: 2,300

National Grid: 1,856

Raymour & Flanigan: 1,400

Syracuse VA Medical Center: 1,400

Bristol-Myers Squibb, founded by alums of nearby Hamilton College, has a complex near the Eastwood district. Time Warner Cable has based one of its divisions in Syracuse. Today the Syracuse area has few extremely large employers, but rather many smaller ones. Eight of the area's top eleven employers are in education or the service industry, rather than in manufacturing. Some of the smaller employers in Syracuse are:

Anaren, Inc.: Employees 862

Seneca Data Distributors, Inc.: Employees 300

Cooper Crouse-Hinds: Employees 500-999

Tallest buildings - Since 1927 the State Tower Building has been the tallest in Syracuse.

The State Tower Building 95 m built in 1928

AXA Tower I (Originally "MONY Building") 82 m built in 1966

AXA Tower II (Originally "Carrier Building") 82 m built in 1971

The City of Syracuse officially recognizes 26 neighborhoods within its boundaries. Some of these have small additional neighborhoods and districts inside of them. In addition, Syracuse also owns and operates Syracuse Hancock International Airport, located on the territory of four towns north of the city. Syracuse's neighborhoods reflect the historically divided population. Traditionally, Irish, Polish and Ukrainian Americans settled on its west side; Jews on its eastside; German and Italian Americans on the north side; and African-Americans on its south side.

Business districts - In addition to the dominant Destiny USA shopping area in the Syracuse's Lakefront neighborhood, many of the city's more traditional neighborhoods continue to have active business districts:

Downtown: Armory Square has replaced South Salina Street as the main retail and dining area of Downtown Syracuse. Armory Square has around 30 dining establishments, around 20 pubs, bars and clubs, and over 50 other retail stores. Similarly, but on a smaller scale, there is the Hanover Square area. A number of professional firms are also located in Armory Square, including Eric Mower and Associates, O'Brien & Gere, and the Sugarman Law Firm.

Eastwood: Calling itself "the village within the city", this former village still has a retail corridor along James Street.

Little Italy: A neighborhood with Italian origins, Little Italy (part of the Near Northeast neighborhood) has several blocks of bakeries, restaurants, pizzerias, shops, and services.

Butternut Circle: North Side neighborhood located at the intersection of Butternut Street and Grant Blvd (part of the Court-Woodlawn neighborhood) has several blocks housing a flower shop, drug store, pizza shop, deli, restaurants, beauty and barber shops, dentist and auto dealer.

University Hill: Marshall Street, along with its terminus South Crouse Avenue, is lined with stores, bars, and restaurants, primarily catering to the student population on "The Hill", as well as the over 25,000 people who work there daily. East Genesee Street at the north-western corner of the neighborhood has several retail establishments, as well.

Westcott: This neighborhood, located east of University Hill, is inhabited by a wide variety of people, increasingly including some college students as the University grows but still primarily local families and residents. Single-family homes and two-unit apartments comprise the majority of housing. Westcott is known as a bohemian and liberal quarter, and each September hosts the Westcott Street Cultural Fair. The main business district is on Westcott Street between Beech and Dell streets and includes restaurants, bars, an independent bookstore, a consignment shop, The Westcott Theater, and other businesses.

Syracuse Education Arts & Culture

Colleges and universities - One of Syracuse's major research universities is Syracuse University, located on University Hill. It had an enrollment of 21,029 for the 2012–2013 academic year.

Immediately adjacent to Syracuse University are two doctoral-degree granting State University (SUNY) schools, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Upstate Medical University. Both institutions have long-standing ties to Syracuse University. SUNY-ESF was established in 1911, as the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. SUNY Upstate Medical University, which had its start as Syracuse University's medical school, is also one of Syracuse's major research universities and is one of only about 125 academic medical centers in the country. It is the region's largest employer with over 9,400 employees. Two local hospitals operate schools of nursing within the city: the Crouse Hospital College of Nursing, on University Hill; and Saint Joseph's College of Nursing, in the downtown area.

Two institutions of higher education are based in the Syracuse suburbs: Le Moyne College in the Town of DeWitt and Onondaga Community College in the Town of Onondaga. Le Moyne is a Jesuit college founded in 1946 and named after the 17th century missionary and diplomat Simon Le Moyne who first discovered the value of the Onondaga salt springs (see "French contact" above). It was also the first Jesuit college to be founded as coeducational. Its baseball team has had several players who went on to become professionals. Onondaga Community College has its main campus in the adjacent town of Onondaga and has two smaller campuses downtown and in Liverpool.

Several colleges operate satellite campuses in Syracuse and its suburbs:

Bryant & Stratton College has campuses in Liverpool and downtown Syracuse

Columbia College (Missouri) has a campus in Salina

Empire State College operates its Central New York main learning center in East Syracuse

ITT Technical Institute has a campus in Liverpool

State University of New York at Oswego operates its Metro Center in downtown Syracuse

Other colleges and universities in nearby counties include Cazenovia College in Cazenovia (20 miles away), Colgate University in Hamilton (40 miles away), Cornell University and Ithaca College in Ithaca (50 miles away), Hamilton College in Clinton (50 miles away), Morrisville State College in Morrisville (30 miles away), Oswego State University in Oswego (40 miles away), SUNY Cortland in Cortland (35 miles away), both Utica College and SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica (50 miles away), and Wells College in Aurora (40 miles away).

Syracuse was home to the 79-member Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), founded in 1961. In early April 2011, the orchestra announced plans to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, a chapter of the U.S. bankruptcy code that indicates that the organization plans to liquidate itself and go out of operation. Unfunded pension obligations were blamed. The SSO's last Music Director was Daniel Hege; former Music Directors include Frederik Prausnitz and Kazuyoshi Akiyama. At its peak, the orchestra performed over 200 concerts annually for an audience of over 250,000.

The Clinton String Quartet has been active for over 15 years and is based in the Syracuse area. All four members were also members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra until its dissolution in early 2011. The Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music for more than a half century have presented a series of concerts by various chamber ensembles. The Society for New Music, founded in 1982, is the oldest new music organization in the state outside of New York City, and the only year-round new music group in upstate New York. The Society commissions at least one new work each year from a regional composer, awards the annual Brian Israel Prize to a promising composer under 30 years of age, and produces the weekly "Fresh Ink" radio broadcast for WCNY-FM.

The Syracuse Opera Company is a professional company that generally performs three operas each season. It was founded in 1963 as the Opera Chorus of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and became independent in 1973. In addition to full performances, it offers several free outdoor concerts each year in Armory Square, Thornden Park, and elsewhere. The company has an annual budget of US$1 million and is the only professional opera company in upstate New York.

The Syracuse Shakespeare Festival is a charitable, educational, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to performing the works of William Shakespeare. It was founded in 2002 and is best known for its annual free Shakespeare-in-the-Park program at the Thornden Park Amphitheatre that has attracted more than 17,000 people since its inception. SSF also produces three other major programs including Shakespeare-Under-A-Roof, (indoor shows at SU's Warehouse Theatre and NYS Fairgrounds' New Times Theatre) Kids Doing Shakespeare (Spring and Summer one-week, vacation theatre camps for students in grades 3–12) and the Avon Repertory Theatre. (one hour versions of Shakespeare classics touring at schools and businesses in CNY)

Syracuse Stage presents experimental and creative theater; a number of its productions have been world premieres and have moved to Broadway. The venue was designed by its most famous former artistic director Arthur Storch. Its current artistic director is Timothy Bond. The Red House Arts Center is one of Syracuse's newest cultural venues. Opened in 2004, Redhouse is a small theatre housed in a converted hotel, which offers performances by local, national, and international artists, and hosts regular exhibits in its art gallery, and screenings of independent films.

The Metal 'Cuse fundraising concert is held every November in Syracuse. Showcasing local, regional and national hard rock and heavy metal acts, the event benefits local charities such as the Syracuse Rescue Mission and raises cancer awareness. Past headliners have included The Rods, from Cortland and original New Jersey metal band Sleepy Hollow. The first Metal 'Cuse concert in 2010 also featured 50 Syracuse area musicians known as "Lock Up the Wolves" doing a special tribute to Ronnie James Dio; they performed songs from many different parts of his career.

Museums and art galleries

Everson Museum of Art, which opened in 1968 in a building designed by I.M. Pei, features one of the most extensive pottery collections in the United States along with works of American art, dating from the 18th century to the present. This collection includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography, and video.

Erie Canal Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of the Erie Canal and its role in Syracuse's growth.

International Mask and Puppet Museum is a museum in Little Italy focusing on masks and puppets, the latter of which are also used in educational performances for children.

Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology is a museum located in the Armory Square neighborhood that features exhibits in science and technology and also houses the city's only IMAX theater.

Onondaga Historical Association Museum & Research Center, located at 321 Montgomery Street downtown, features exhibits on the past of the Syracuse region, and contains historical archives relating to the area's history. Its exhibits include a presentation of the history of the Underground Railroad.

The Warehouse Gallery is located at 350 West Fayette Street in The Warehouse. It is a part of the Coalition of Museum And Art Centers (CMAC). This new contemporary art center exhibits, commissions, and promotes work by emerging and accomplished artists in a variety of media. The programming attempts to engage the community in a dialogue regarding the role the arts can play in illuminating the critical issues of our times.

Spark Contemporary Art Space is located at 1005 E. Fayette St. in the Downtown area. Spark is run by Syracuse University graduate art students, but is a venue for a diversity of non-university affiliated events. The gallery's directors curate and organize art and music related events, while local artists can rent the space to hold their own events. With the initiation of a monthly video screening series in 2001, Spark became one of the leading venues for video art in Syracuse. Spark Video provides the community an opportunity to see video work from local and international artists.

Delavan Art Gallery is located at 501 West Fayette Street in an old farm equipment factory. The gallery is being refashioned into an Art Shop Complex known as "The Art Shops at Delavan Center". Delavan Gallery has 3,800 square feet (350 m2) of exhibit space, and, on several other floors in the building, houses the studios of a number of area artists. Its shows have typically opened the first Thursday of the month. Showcases have featured a wide variety of work, from multi-media sculpture to hyperrealism.

Point of Contact Gallery is located at 914 East Genesee Street. The newest member of the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University, it is a space dedicated to the exploration of the verbal and visual arts and home of the Point of Contact Art Collection. It is a cross-disciplinary open forum for the essential discussion of contemporary art. A showcase for contemporary artists from around the world, with a strong prevalence from Latin America. The Point of Contact collection comprises over 200 original pieces created especially for "Point of Contact", the book series, since 1975. Photography, collage, drawings, paintings and three-dimensional works form this rare collection.

The City of Syracuse maintains over 170 parks, fields, and recreation areas, totalling over 1,000 acres (4.0 km2). Burnet Park includes the first public golf course in the United States (1901) and Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Other major parks include Thornden Park, Schiller Park, Sunnycrest Park, James Pass Arboretum and the joined Onondaga Park and Kirk Parks. There are 12 public pools, two public ice rinks, and two public nine-hole golf courses in the city.

Right outside the city proper, along the east side and north end of Onondaga Lake, is Onondaga Lake Park. The adjacent Onondaga Lake Parkway is closed to vehicular traffic several hours on Sundays during the summer months, so it can be used for walking, running, biking, and rollerblading. During the holiday season, the park hosts Lights on the Lake, a two-mile (3 km) drive-through light show.

Syracuse Transportation & Sports

Public transportation - Syracuse is served by the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority, or CNYRTA. The CNYRTA operates bus service in Syracuse and its suburbs, as well as to outlying metropolitan area cities such as Auburn, Fulton, and Oswego. The Pyramid Companies have also proposed a monorail linking Syracuse University to Hancock International Airport via Downtown Syracuse to their proposed Destiny Resort to the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center and their proposed Destiny Technology Park. The cost of such a line has been estimated at $750 million.

In 2005, local millionaire Tom McDonald proposed an aerial tramway system, called Salt City Aerial Transit (S.C.A.T.), to link the university to the transportation center. The first segment from Syracuse University to downtown has been estimated to cost $5 million, which McDonald plans to raise himself. Due to the perceived low operating costs, the system could run continuously. As of late 2006, the project remains in the planning stage.

Commute - According to the 2000 Census, this is how people aged 16 and over commute to work:

66% drove alone

14% carpool

10% walk

7% use public buses (CENTRO)

0.6% bike

0.2% used a taxicab

0.01% used elevated rail (OnTrack, now defunct)

Syracuse ranks 50th in the United States for high transit ridership and 12th for most pedestrian commuters. 38,332 people commute daily into Onondaga County from the four adjoining counties (2006).

Rail - Syracuse lies on three Amtrak lines—the Empire Service, the Maple Leaf, and the Lake Shore Limited. The Empire Service runs several times daily from Niagara Falls to New York Penn Station, with major stops in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, and Albany along the way. The Maple Leaf follows the path of the Empire Service train, but continues to Toronto. This train completes one roundtrip daily.

Also completing one roundtrip a day, the Lake Shore Limited connects Syracuse to the same cities as above (except Niagara Falls), but continues westward from Buffalo to Chicago via Cleveland and Toledo, and eastward to Boston, with a branch extending south to New York.

The Amtrak station is part of the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center. A regional commuter rail service, OnTrack, was active from 1994 until it was discontinued in 2007 due to low ridership. Its sole route connected the Carousel Center to southern Syracuse, often extending to Jamesville in the summer.

Bus - Greyhound Lines and Trailways provide long-distance bus service. Both also use the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center located in the northern area of the city.

Air service - Syracuse is served by the Syracuse Hancock International Airport in nearby Salina, near Mattydale. The airport is served by 17 airlines (9 major), which provide non-stop flights to destinations as far away as Orlando, FL and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, as well as several daily flights to other important airline hubs such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport, Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County International Airport, New York (LaGuardia), New York (JFK), Philadelphia International Airport, Washington, D.C. (Reagan), Washington D.C. (Dulles), Newark/New York (Liberty), Toronto Pearson International Airport. Six cargo carriers also serve the airport. New York City (JFK, LGA, EWR), served by 3 different carriers, can be reached in under an hour flight.

Syracuse Crunch (American Hockey League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning) Arena: War Memorial at Oncenter

Syracuse Silver Knights, a team in the Major Indoor Soccer League

Syracuse has a rugby club known as the Syracuse Chargers http://www.syracuserugby.com

The Syracuse ShockWave American Basketball Association (2000) has been announced to play in Syracuse beginning December 2010.

Syracuse was from 1946 until 1963 home to the NBA's Syracuse Nationals, which are now the Philadelphia 76ers. They played seventeen seasons in Syracuse and won the NBA championship in 1955. The NBA's 24-second clock was invented in and first came into use in Syracuse. In March 2005 the city dedicated a monument to this fact. It is a 125% scaled model of the original shot clock used. Syracuse has had several American Hockey League teams in the past, which traditionally did not last longer than three seasons. The Syracuse Blazers began play in the Eastern Hockey league in 1973. The league disbanded in 1973. The team then affiliated with the North America Hockey League. 1994 marked the introduction of a new team, the Syracuse Crunch, which have been playing at the War Memorial at Oncenter ever since.

Syracuse had a team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) called the Syracuse Smash for three seasons from 1998 to 2000. They moved to Ottawa in 2001 and became the Ottawa Rebel The Syracuse Spirit was a member of the American Lacrosse League, a short lived professional lacrosse league in 1988, based in Syracuse, New York. The Spirit played their home games at the Griffin Field in Liverpool, New York. The General Manager of the Spirit was Tom Scofield and the Head Coach was Jim Booth. The Spirit had a 4–1 record when the league folded.

The Syracuse Shock is a semi-professional American football team based in Syracuse, New York. They play in the North American Football League. The Syracuse Express was established in 1984 and were members of the Mid Continental Football League before that team contracted into the midwest. They joined the upstart New York Amateur Football League, where they became one of the league's premier teams, along with their rivals, the Buffalo Gladiators. After absorbing the Cortland Warriors in 1999 the team became the Central New York Express, although they still played their games in suburban Syracuse. The Express have won one NYAFL title in 2003. The NYAFL merged to become the Northeastern Football Alliance (NFA) and with the change, the team changed and was replaced by a new team named the Syracuse Shock.

Syracuse had a team for one season in the American Indoor Football League called the Syracuse Soldiers. The Syracuse-based Monolith Athletic Club is working to return professional soccer to Syracuse. The Syracuse Salty Dogs existed for two seasons (2002–2004) until folding due to financial problems. The game attendance had been among the highest in the A-League.

Syracuse had a professional football team from 1890 to 1900 known as the Syracuse Athletic Association, the independent All-Syracuse team which was known in 1921 as the Syracuse Pros in the APFA before leaving the league and reverting to the All-Syracuse team, and briefly in the 1936 American Football League season known as the Syracuse Braves. In 1902, the first World Series of pro football was played at New York's original Madison Square Garden. The 5 teams in the tournament were the New York Knickerbockers, Syracuse AC, Warlow AC, the Orange (New Jersey) AC, and New York. Syracuse won the tournament 6-0 with Glen (Pop) Warner at guard. The December 28, 1902 game where Syracuse defeated New York 5-0 at Madison Square Garden is credited as the first indoor pro football game.

College

Syracuse University's football team is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference and plays its games in the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse University Orange (Division I-A) Stadium: Carrier Dome

Le Moyne College Dolphins (Division II)

Onondaga Community College Lazers (NJCAA)

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Mighty Oaks (USCAA)

Syracuse University sports are by far the most well-attended sporting events in the Syracuse area. Basketball games can draw over 30,000 fans, and football games over 40,000. The university has helped develop dozens of famous professional players since starting an athletics program in the late 19th century, including all-time greats Jim Brown, Larry Csonka and Dave Bing, and contemporary professional stars Marvin Harrison, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Freeney, Jason Hart, and Donovan McNabb. Both teams play in the Carrier Dome.

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